Headlines
by Lost Experiment
Summary: Demyx poked listlessly at the plate of slightly watery eggs, bacon, fish and potatoes he was served, thinking about Axel, Marluxia and Axel’s hands wandering all over him in Aerith’s kitchen. He wondered how much he had to hide.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Headlines (1 of ?)  
**Author: Lost Experiment**  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word Count:** 3700+  
**Pairings/Warnings/Spoilers:** Axel/Demyx, AU, Character Death. You might see a little Demyx/Zexion if you don't blink and miss it.  
**Summary:** When Demyx, a poor reporter and worse writer barely clinging to his job is forced to cover the story of the death of one of his only friends, he decides to start fresh in a new world. His new boss is practically a criminal, his new colleagues are strange and he's stuck covering the very thing he wanted to escape in the first place.  
Author's Notes: I haven't written in awhile, so what do I do? Start a new fic. I like fiction about Journalism and Mysteries and stories where people are uprooted and dumped into a situation they're totally not used to. Also, like usual, I think I read somewhere that people wanted some more Axel/Demyx. Or something.

* * *

Demyx Strife had grown up in Twilight Town. He was a small man of the sort that went unnoticed in a large crowd. Insides writhing like snakes poised to strike, nerves as taught as rubber bands. People could see it in his face, but never asked, would rather change the subject than make it their problem. Carried with him what he supposed was an uneasy childhood, full of being picked last for sports teams, bare pass grades and teachers that merely smiled nodded and repeated the words of encouragement the school had said all children should hear: _You can do anything if you just try_. Went to the college his parents told him to go to, dropped out after a half a year to go looking for a job. He'd tried.

While brother Cloud went off to join the army, Demyx circled the help-wanted-ads in his parents' basement. Smears of red and blue ink covering his fingers and white socks. Both mother and father passed away in a few short years of each other and the basement became a rented room. Landlord barely there, money from the will covering the necessities.

One day he banged into the tall red-head. Clumsy Demyx with newspaper and cooling coffee in hand, deep in his daily perusing of the want-ads and failing to see the mountain of a man that was blocking the sidewalk. The drink scalded his fingers and a dark, spreading stain was leaking across the man's pristine white shirt front.

"Sorry it's ruined…" wanted to add '…but I'll buy you a new one' and naturally couldn't.

The other man seemed unabashed by the accident. "Not really." He said, giving Demyx a rare smile. Hesitantly returned, must be a fake. "I'll get it dry cleaned tomorrow." Pulling his suit jacket from a computer bag, covering the mess with sleek black. Another rare smile for Demyx.

Lexaeus Waters became his friend. Bought him expensive coffee with whipped crème and caramel, spoke slowly and humbly although in time Demyx came to recognize him for one of the foremost and top-paid newspapermen in the world. Finally handed over a business card, told him to stop by the Sunset office when he felt like it. They were looking for an on-call writer and photographer to cover the stories the regular staff didn't get to. Didn't want to constantly hire unreliable freelancers. "Who knows? Maybe you'll enjoy it!"

With his inheritance dwindling, Demyx was willing to let a stranger's kindness change his life. He went, apprehensive and expecting very little. _Good Samaritan Helps Out Longtime Loser. Failure Imminent._

* * *

"This would be Xemnas' office. I've told him as much as I can about you Demyx. I wouldn't harp on your situation much. It will reflect in your favour if you don't cry or speak of the tragedy you've been through." He paused and swallowed. "Loosing your parents, I mean. He's not sympathetic: entirely business minded.."

Demyx nodded but it seemed as though Lexaeus was speaking a foreign tongue. He didn't feel the kind of crushing grief people always seemed to describe when his parents died, just another failure to add to the list. They were good people but had never really tried to make a difference in his life. He'd lived with them first then tried to do what they wanted, failed and they just accepted that as though it was an inevitability that couldn't be changed. The two walked side-by-side down the hall, Lexaeus calm and silent as ever but Demyx a live-wire, about to explode.

Lexaeus nodded once at him before they parted company, escaping to the rat's maze of cubicles that represented a steady job. Demyx pressing forward.

Xemnas wasn't a loud or big man, but he was attractive, professional and secure in the knowledge he was both intimidating and in charge. Had long fallen in love with himself, liked to hear himself talk. Liked that Demyx let him.

"I'll hire you to this paper on the condition that you cover what I tell you to. I don't need any third-rate ideas about Journalism from a hack." He said in his smooth, deep voice. "No experimenting, and I don't need your opinion. Just complete the assignments and we will get along fine."

"Yes sir. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you for hiring me."

"Head up to the ninth floor offices. Third door on your right – that's Namine's office. She's our copy editor- will set you up with a cell phone and camera. I'll call you with your assignments as they come in. Leave as soon as you receive the call. Don't use the phone for any personal calls, business and emergency only. Leave a blank check if you can at the front when you leave, ask whoever is on desk for a direct deposit slip."

Demyx nodding, trying to take the information in. Went stumbling in a surreal haze into the elevator. Namine a petite blonde who still looked like a little girl despite the fact that closer examination revealed crow's feet and laugh lines marring her soft features.

"Here you are, Sir. Welcome." Uneasy smiles passed around. A cold lump of black plastic that was both alien and too heavy in his fingers.

"Thank you." What else to be said? Painstakingly filled out a direct deposit form and left it with the pudgy receptionist whom he would later know as 'Pence.'.

The next few months passed in a whirlwind. Demyx met his colleagues and expanded his horizons. First, there was Pence and Namine's engagement party. He had a drink. Met the other employees. There was Leon and Aerith: a married couple covering city politics together. Tifa, an attractive woman who claimed to have broken into the reporting business as a food critic since her breasts which were indeed quite large had always gotten her free dinners. Zexion, the paper's managing editor. A strange young man who seemed to look right through you, rewrote pieces impassively so that you didn't know whether he liked you or not. Had a habit of licking his lips, almost seductively. Demyx licking his in return one day, caught himself and took the afternoon off. Had never considered the possibility he might be attracted to another man. Wouldn't let that become yet another failure of his existence, particularly not now when things were starting to work in his favour finally.

Then, there was the living in constant fear that the next rent wouldn't be paid. Somehow, a big story came through and saved him by a bare margin in time. Then Lexaeus, always including Demyx in his plans. He'd stop by with foreign cheese and wines, a wizard in vegetarian dishes. Tried to light a fire under Demyx over these meals, strived to improve his writing. Every word of advice just confused him more. Demyx always nodded just to seem smart – a habit he'd never lost from his years of fumbling in school.. Write what you know…do what you know. Same thing, at least it was constant. Schedules were understood.

"I have an announcement." Lexaeus one evening at dinner. Demyx smiled. Just the two of them there, must be something funny. "I'm going on vacation for three weeks. To the Twilight Town beach."

Demyx clapped enthusiastically, they smiled at one another. The blonde offered to water his plants and take in the mail, just like a good friend should.

A week later, the call came. Xemnas himself on the line. "Demyx. Hop on the train and get down to the beach. Lexaeus is there for his holiday, but I can't get ahold of him to cover the story. Boat went under, lots of death, great stuff. Get on it. Take pictures. Pence should be back with your train tickets by the time you arrive."

Feeling important, although it had been quite clear from Xemnas' tone that he would have preferred a more experienced reporter to cover the story and this was a last resort, Demyx arrived at the office to accept the train tickets from Pence, who wished him luck in his usual friendly way, which had gotten more pronounced after his marriage to Namine. Demyx supposed that the soft-spoken editor had told her new husband of the constant, pathetic errors in his writing.

The train jostled him back and forth for a few hours and it was a quick walk to the beach, no need to rent a car or hail a tram. Paramedics were still there, and he snapped a few pictures of the crane towing the small outboard into shore before creeping towards the white ambulance and figures moving about the still form on the stretcher.

"No Press." One red-faced and young policeman said firmly, barring Demyx's path and giving him a stern look. "You people are vultures, honestly."

A flash of orange-red hair against white. "I'm…he's my friend!" he blurted. Pushing past the young cop, barely registering the indignant shouts.

Demyx pulled up just short of the stretcher, looking at the blue-tinted and clearly dead face of his only friend. His lips and skin were swollen with water, his shorts and plain t-shirt were soaked and stuck to his body. He didn't even look asleep, like his parents had at their funeral.

Fighting the urge to vomit, Demyx let himself be removed from the area by the cop, walked away halfway through his warning.

Found a post office in the seaside town and telegraphed a message about Lexaeus to Xemnas along with his letter of resignation. Dropped the black cell phone into a courier package. Stumbled over to the pay phone. Couldn't stay here any more. He had to run away. Please, please, please don't let him fail at that too.

"Hello, I'd like to place a collect call to Destiny Islands…Cloud Strife…His brother, Demyx."

"…Demyx?"

Thank God.

* * *

The next day there was a check sitting on the foldaway table that had served as Demyx's eating surface, covering the rent. He was on the latest Gummi Ship offworld, headed to where his brother was currently stationed in the Destiny Islands. Leaving Xemnas and Namine and Lexaeus' dead body behind, but not the Newspaper business.

Cloud had asked him what he'd been doing, then said he knew a guy who might be able to get him a job.

When he landed, his brother was there to greet him, waving calmly with a heavily-muscled arm. "I got you your job." He said by way of greeting. "Axel – he's the owner, says he just needed a new guy to cover the accidents. Dunno how you got yourself into writing, but it's apparently a good job. Very important. Naturally, I didn't tell him how you usually get on with the important stuff, but hopefully you won't screw up like usual. C'mon, kid, let's mosey."

Demyx didn't bother to respond to the jibe, he was too busy trying to come to terms with his brother's explanation of the job he'd found for him. Covering accidents? When he'd failed at covering the last one? When his best friend had been killed by one? _Man Fails at Running Away After All._

* * *

The next day he was up before Cloud, following directions to the newspaper office off a piece of paper left next to his coffee. Four children raced past him, three boys, two who were short with spiky hair, a silver-haired boy who could have been related to Xemnas and a red-headed girl. Demyx caught a snippet of their conversation as their voices faded up the lane.

"Hey, did you see him? He's new here! Probably from another world!"

"Come on Riku, you're always thinking about weird stuff like that." The girl.

"Yeah, it's not important. He didn't look exciting."

The story of his life. Demyx continued on, finally coming to the town. He spotted the kids again, untying rowboats down the pier. They watched him more carefully this time as he approached, the paper office was right next to the water, as Cloud had stated.

Tried the door. Open, but the lights were off, not a flicker of movement. Backed into something in the dark and upset a pile of papers that spilled onto the floor. Picked them up as best he could, tripped on the way out.

If Cloud had been a different sort of person, this might have been a joke. Cloud was as serious as ever though, so something else must be wrong. He'd get a coffee, think about it. Maybe they were all out covering stories.

He turned into the café and felt the frigid air-conditioning blast full in his face. He ordered a coffee he couldn't really afford and had to wait while the bartender made the hot drink that wasn't often ordered in the tropical climate of Destiny Islands. Ended up upsetting that too, watching almost dumbfounded as the dark spill dribbled over the side of the table and into the grain of the rug.

Muttering apologies to the waitress who had already headed back to the kitchen, he chose a booth and sat to read a copy of the paper he may or may not actually be employed at. Staring at the headline of the front page, Demyx decided that the heretofore empty newspaper office might not be such a bad thing. He couldn't write this kind of stuff.

The _Sunset_ was a myriad of small startup business news and political opinions on local government affair. Every bit of it an impersonal and factual breeding ground for reporters designed to extol the news and nothing else. The headline story of the _Island Post_ was the polar opposite: a homegrown account of the local school kids' fall return to their studies, expounded upon by accounts of local parents lamenting the rising price of school supplies. These were stories that garnered the sympathies of a close-knit community. Next was the 'international news' which consisted of a brief account of doings in far-off Port Royal and something about the King of Disney that Xemnas would have said wasn't fit for a tabloid. Both of them written by someone named Luxord. The stock-report was equally brief, penned by 'Dilan'. 'Braig' had posted a couple of want-ads, along with a human interest story about someone who had taken home videos of falling stars. Editor Axel printed and answered a few letters, again in that alien personable tone. Then, at the very end, but probably what Demyx decided everyone must read first: a truly brilliant and incredible gossip column, a scandal sheet bordering on the libelous. Titled 'Heartless' and the byline stamped as 'Xaldin'.

"You there!"

Demyx looked up from perusing 'Heartless' with the uncomfortable feeling of being caught red-handed at eavesdropping. The man in the corner with the eye patch was waving to get his attention, and he shrank back.

"You must be Demyx."

Demyx got up, made his way over to the other side of the man's booth. "How did you know?"

"Hell, some of the kids saw ya bungling around the _Island_ office. Knew it was you when you upset the coffee too. I'm Braig. Editor in Chief.. Sit down kid. Have a beer." All said in one, lazy drawl of breath.

Demyx sat down. Declined the drink. _Foreign Man Recognized For Clumsiness: Locals Amused._

"So, you're the new guy." Braig gulped down a third of the beer, looked Demyx over. "From the city huh? You'll find that nothing on an Island opens early."

"Yeah." Demyx nodded agreement. Decided to voice his fear. "He wants me to cover accidents and stuff. Don't know why, I couldn't do it in the city. I ran away when my friend got killed and didn't cover the story."

To his surprise, Braig laughed as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Hah, that's Axel for you. Doesn't want to face his own fear, so he makes every one else do it for him. At least you're taking the job. I'll tell you somethin' about Axel. You see those kids that play down by the island just off the shore? Leave every day on a little boat. Just about the time that you woulda come in."

Demyx thought a moment, then nodded. "Four of them, right? Three boys and a girl?"

"Yeah, that'd be them. Anyway, ol' Axel didn't used to be the editor on the paper. Used to work on the Island Fire Department. So last summer we had a real dry spell. Good forest fire weather. Palm trees igniting for no reason every day. Fire Department's busy as sin. It so happens that a breeze kicks up and one of these little brush fires goes shootin' off down the row. Set fire to the house of the school's science teacher, Even."

"Axel didn't get there in time, huh?" Demyx guessed.

"Too right he didn't. There's more than that though. He and Even weren't exactly friends. Couple of people figured he did it on purpose, got a good rumor going. Because he got there late, I mean. Even himself killed gettin' his kids outta the blaze and the fire department showing up a split second after he'd burned to death in that house. In the end, they hadda let Axel off. No proof, y'see? But they couldn't let him back on the force either. Those little kids were left without a father. You shoulda seen what it did to Axel. Begged to save the kids a fate at the orphanage. Whole mess tied up for days in court and that was a real newsworthy wreck if there ever was one."

"Didn't the children have a mother?"

"Ah, now that was a bit of a sad thing. Knew Even a bit myself. Married Larxene, who everyone knew was screwin' around with Marluxia. Guy's a botanist, lives clear across the other side of the island. They – Even and Larxene that is, divorced eventually and Ms. Larxene made it quite clear she didn't want the little parasites. You ask me, those kids are better off with Axel – if ever there was a lady not fit to raise…well anyway – these two twin boys were eventually left to Axel's care."

"Identical?" Demyx asked, trying to recall.

"Fraternal. Roxas and Sora. That's the blonde and the brunette, both with that spiked up hair."

"Axel's not…?" Demyx trying to see the problem, made a motion towards a lewd gesture.

"Oh nonono. Nothin' like that. Couldn't ask for a more loving foster parent. Raises 'em as though they were his flesh and blood, Axel does. It's just…well, Sora, Sora I guess'll tolerate the poor guy. Roxas however hates him."

"So, Axel wanted someone to cover the disasters, cause he can't stand it."

"Right in one. You pick things up like that and you might last yet."

Demyx mulled that one over. He wasn't used to being told he did stuff right. Felt a bit more knowledgeable about life on Destiny Islands. "Xaldin?" he guessed.

"Hah, no." Braig seemed to glare at Demyx. That eyepatch was intimidating. _Foreign Man Found Dead after Bar Fight: Guilty of Insulting Local's Integrity. _He laughed instead though. "Nah, I mind my own business, though since you're on the paper now I guess you can be let in on trade secrets. Dilan is Xaldin. But don't you tell nobody or I'll have to kill you."

Braig glared daggers and Demyx who didn't know whether he should laugh. He eventually did.

"Guess that covers it." Braig shoved his beer aside, looked at his watch. Stood up and stretched, shaking a hand at the door. "Time to get down to the office. People should be gettin' in right about now."

Demyx fidgeted the whole way to the office but Braig was totally calm. "Don't worry."

He was worried though. Was used to Xemnas and his firm orders. People drank beer at eleven in the morning here. They didn't come to work on time. He was supposed to cover their accidents. Time ran in a slow fashion here that Demyx just didn't understand.

"So." Braig pushed open the door. "Here's the hive of scum and villainy now." He gestured at the office which was now lit up. "Everyone! This is Demyx. Over there, is Luxord. He covers the International News. People think he's well traveled because he's got a Port Royal accent but really, he gets all his news from the internet and changes the wording. Even if someone did recognize that he can't really write, barely anyone here uses the internet anyway."

Luxord bowed at Demyx and threw a ball of paper at Braig's head. "Don't believe a word of it, Demyx, the Cyclops can't write half as well as I can, and he knows it."

Nervous laughter from Demyx as Braig dodged the paper projectile and returned a more accurate fire with one of the sheets from the pile Demyx had knocked over earlier.

"Over there's Dilan. Dilan's my buddy. He writes the Stock Report and sometimes a home-piece…he's the genius behind this week's weepy front-page kiddy story. Like I told ya before, our big secret is that he also bungs together the gossip."

Demyx had never seen a more unlikely gossip columnist. Dilan was possibly even more built than Cloud and the SOLDIER army and he had thick dreadlocks which he kept tied off his face. "Good to meet you." He said solemnly, offering his hand for a shake. Surely, this was a joke too.

"Where's Axel today anyhow?"

Demyx followed Braig's gaze to the empty and very cluttered desk in the front of the room.

"He was here for five minutes, then had to go out to the school." Dilan spoke without looking up. "Roxas latest trick is to set things on fire."

Demyx revised his opinion on Dilan's credibility as a gossip. Felt a pang of sympathy for Axel who he wanted to see as someone who knew about failure like he did.

"To see if he'll get there on time." Braig nodded wisely. Then, in a different tone. "Well, make yourself at home there, Demyx. Read some back-issues, get a feel for how we do things here. Axel probably won't show up today, he usually takes the day off when Roxas has one of his little escapades at school."

"Great, we can all go home early." Luxord suggested.

"Yep." Braig crashed into a chair and nobody spoke anymore as the hum of three computers started up simultaneously. Demyx's head buzzing as he wondered how long this job would last. _Man Gets Through First Day Thanks to Boss's Delinquent Child_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Headlines (2 of ?)  
**Author: Lost Experiment**  
**Rating:** PG-13/T  
**Pairings/Warnings/Spoilers:** Axel/Demyx, AU, Character Death. Some stuff unique to this chapter I won't spoil here. Het and Yaoi.  
**Summary:** When Demyx, a poor reporter and worse writer barely clinging to his job is forced to cover the story of the death of one of his only friends, he decides to start fresh in a new world. His new boss is practically a criminal, his new colleagues are strange and he's stuck covering the very thing he wanted to escape in the first place.  
**Authors' Notes: ** Thanks for reading…and if you liked reading, or want to place it on your +faves, please review. Reviews are golden and make me happy.

* * *

**Chapter Two **

Axel didn't show up all week. Braig took to shrugging it off and laughing when Demyx asked with increasing concern where the redhead might be, Dilan made it quite clear that bothering the man at home would be a bad idea. He felt ridiculous though and worried about his pay. Luxord would laugh and insist Demyx not worry but how could he when he wasn't doing any real work? _Island Morality: Overrated_

Cloud occasionally was home from the Officers Club and when he was, he asked how things were going. Demyx told him about the problem and his brother nodded sagely. "Roxas again, huh?" He tapped the back of the copy of the Island Post he'd been reading, indicating that not even the boss could escape Xaldin's scrutiny. Demyx wondered if Axel too was afraid of Dilan. It seemed possible. "That's Axel for you, I guess. He won't be away forever."

Finally on his next Monday, the cluttered desk and its chair were occupied. Like everyone else here, Axel was not what Demyx expected of a business owner at all, particularly after Xemnas' cold professionalism. He grinned and waved up at Demyx as he talked to someone on the phone when he came in. At one time, Axel probably had been quite well-built (Demyx remembered he had once been a firefighter), but now he looked too-thin and distinctly careworn. He was also extremely good looking in spite of this, a reaction that Demyx instinctively tried to hide.

"Awesome. Yeah. Gotta go, ok? The new guy's here." The phone clicked into its cradle. "Hello, Demyx." Axel drawled. 'So, you must have heard all about me. Probably read about me too. Xaldin just can't keep his fucking nose out of my business."

Axel stared at Dilan who was actually smirking and saluted his boss. Oh right. Demyx still couldn't get a joke. Laughed a little too late.

"So, I guess you're ready to get started? Yeah? Excellent." He rolled on, not waiting for Demyx's reply. "Straight into it then. Your first assignment is all too perfect. Right up your alley. I need you to watch my kids for a few hours tonight. They're driving me up a wall and I desperately need to get drunk and laid."

Demyx's jaw dropped. Was this a joke too? He laughed, the forced, confused sound falling just a little short of his mouth.

"Nah, seriously."

"But I thought you wanted me to write for the paper, not babysit!"

Axel stared. "You have a problem with that?"

"I…guess not, Sir."

"Yes you do. Clearly you do, or you would have said 'Of course Axel, may I kiss your ass and lick your boots too please?' Not that I don't expect that, but…huh. Looks like you actually have an opinion. Maybe you ARE paper material after all."

Demyx stared. "I…what?"

"Geez, I thought those big-city papers were all about doing what you're told. But you have a spine. Not much of one, but one nonetheless. I'll put you on a few stories to start you out and we'll take it from there. Oh yeah…and I really do want you to watch the kids. I was serious about that bit."

He turned to Luxord, apparently indicating his conversation with Demyx was finished. "Hey, wasn't there some dude with a fish fetish over on Atlantica?"

The Port-Royal native nodded. "Well it was a mermaid actually but she had this poor man all trussed up with a fork and a pipe or something. Kinky stuff, so I'm sure I can do something good with it."

"Fantastic. They'll eat it up. Tag it up on my comp, and shoot it by Dilan.to boot. See if you can't put a little bit of a 'Heartless' spin on it. Keeps the good people guessing." Took a breath, turned to Braig as Dilan got up and bent over Luxord's shoulder to take a look at his screen. Apparently he was fine with these orders.

"You drunk?" Axel asked his next victim.

"Just enough to justify going places I shouldn't. That whatchya want Bossman?"

"Oh yeah. Go down to the school and interview some of the kids and teachers. We'll do a nice follow up on Dilan's bit about how smart the kidlets are shaping up. Take new guy here with you – we can't be so lucky as to have an accident every day. Oh! Wait never mind. Demyx. Take the camera and get some shots of my boy's damage yesterday. New angle: Kids need more constant supervision, parents ought to feel guilty about buying their kids all that nice crap."

Demyx's jaw dropped, Braig sidling up alongside him and elbowing him in the side. "Got it Boss. Camera's in the front entrance closet." He added to Demyx, steering him out the door.

Outside on the sand-covered asphalt, following dutifully after Braig, Demyx muttered to himself. "He's insane." He'd said that a bit too loud and realized it . Shaking his head, trying to dispel his nerves and wondering what this would mean for him. "I guess."

"Heh, you got it right. But the big guy's not so bad. Just give him the benefit of the doubt."

They walked to the end of the pier before Demyx realized that he was going to have to get into a boat. He blanched and Braig looked at him funny. Was going to explain how Lexaeus had died, but decided not to and clambered into the craft awkwardly anyway. _Newsflash: Nobody Cares about Weird Foregin Man's Anxieties._

"Hey, so Demyx. When're ya gonna get a boat?" Braig asked. "You'll need one if you want to get around here." He added, taking the look on Demyx's face for confusion.

"I don't really want a boat. I'm not all that interested in sailing."

"Mainland's a pretty big place, though your brother'll have one to get out to the base. It's on an island a little further out. Cars are pretty useless on these roads. Nope, better off with a boat. Talk to Riku's folks sometime. They'll help you get set up. You'd look good with a boat kid."

Demyx was silent the rest of the ride, trying to interpret Braig's statement and failing. As usual.

* * *

The school it turned out was a fairly small affair. Demyx had almost expected red brick and a classic bell but it turned out that it was fairly modern, all things considered. Set in an 'L' shape around a play yard with some stairs and ramps leading inside. It was still late morning so the exterior was fairly quiet. The kids must be in lessons.

Braig wandered in and opened the nearest door while Demyx, who wasn't feeling quite so bold made his way to the office.

The woman behind the desk looked up at him and smiled brilliantly and flirtatiously, evidently hoping to make the most of her cherry flavoured lip gloss. "Goodmorning Sir, and what room would your child be in?"

"I'm looking for the science wing." Demyx stammered, flustered at her batting eyelashes.

"Science room. It's under repair at the moment though, Sir."

"Well, that's the thing. I'm from the paper. I'm supposed to get some pictures of what happened here last week."

The woman's face darkened considerably, and the screams to follow put him in mind of the policeman who'd chased him away from Lexaeus' ambulance. He couldn't even hear what was being said, he just gathered enough of his composure to duck out into the hall. Braig met him.

"Get the pictures?"

"Er, no. I don't think they want us to take pictures of that stuff"

"Of course they don't. You just gotta go do it anyway." Braig snatched the camera away from Demyx and tramped down the hallway, poking his nose in random doors. Once Demyx thought he'd caught sight of the silver-haired boy Riku, before they found the science lab.

"Nice." Braig whistled, looking around. Clearly, not enough damage to warrant a lasting police inquiry had been made, but there were some nasty black char marks on the walls and a twisted lump of metal that had once been lab equipment. He tossed the camera back to Demyx who nearly dropped it. "Do your stuff kid."

Braig waited while Demyx took a couple of pictures of the mess from all angles while his companion wandered around, occasionally muttering things under his breath like_'Bet Axel loved paying for this'_ and _'Really let this get out of hand, didn't they?'_

"Did you get your interviews?"

"C'mon, that should be good." Braig said at last. Demyx straightened and followed him out, wondering if he'd get a reply to his interview question. "Bit of interview, bit of something more."

Demyx took the piece of paper his co-worker had started waving around. It read 'Quistis Trepe,' and had a number scrawled under that name. "Teachers love scars and adventure stuff like that. Y'know, you oughtta consider gettin' a date around here. Nobody knows anything 'bout you yet, except that you're new and Cloud's brother. Not even Dilan can do anything with that. You're _mysterious_."

Demyx didn't reply. He didn't know what to say to the idea.

"Well, guess you've got to survive tonight first." Braig laughed as they climbed into the boat. "Still can't believe the boss has you doing this shit job for him."

_Small Children kill Foreign Nespaper Employee._ It sounded about right to Demyx.

* * *

It was with a significant amount of trepidation that Demyx knocked on the front door of Axel's two-storey house. Apparently being an ex-firefighter and editor-owner of the local newspaper paid very well. He had to check the address a number of times to be sure it was right, realizing that he could only do that for so long – the numbers weren't changing any. He rang the bell.

Demyx couldn't help but stare when Axel opened the door. Quelling the attraction response was now second nature, so his first reaction was to wonder how the man planned on sitting down in pants that tight. His second was to wonder what his kids thought of their father walking around in leather.

Forcing himself to fixate on Axel's face, he blinked. "You have um…sauce. On your nose."

"Hello!" Axel said dryly, scrubbing at his nose and removing the sauce. "I have kids." He pointed to the kitchen, which was visible through the front hall. Sure enough, Sora and Roxas – the same kids from the beach on Demyx's first day were sitting at the table, eating what appeared to be spaghetti.

"I've already suffered through most of the homework torture, so they're free to do what they want. Sora's not allowed to go over to Riku's or Kairi's until he does the last of his math" he added loudly, then turned back to Demyx. "If he says he's finished, ask to see it."

Demyx nodded, bewildered. Found a tray with shoes in it by the door and added his to the pile.

"Be good and try to do the dishes. Demyx is here now, so I'm on my way out. Finish the math now, why don't you? I don't understand why you just don't do it now." Sora gave his father an aggressive hug. "Math sucks. Have fun, Dad!" He pointed out. Axel laughed and then said more seriously. "Don't kill anyone 'kay, Roxas?"

There was no violent scuffle to get up like with Sora. In fact, if Roxas had responded at all, Demyx hadn't heard or seen it.

"Alright." Axel was back, and looked a little less enthusiastic. "I'm outta here. Help yourself to leftovers if you get hungry, and I won't be out too late. My cell's on the fridge anyway."

Demyx adjusted Roxas so he could sit upright as the sound of the door opening jostled him from his sleep. In spite of all the evidence that Roxas would have made it his business to drive Demyx to distraction, Sora seemed to be the rougher, more independent one and had gone to his bedroom to play on his own, evidently having forgotten about the detestable math work. The noises had drifted off after a few hours and Demyx had found him asleep. Not in his pajamas, but Demyx figured he could sleep in his clothes. Roxas on the other hand had ended up curled next to his 'sitter' on the couch, deep in a sleep Demyx had joined him in, halfway through the silly romantic comedy they'd found on television.

Still a little sleep-addled, thought that Axel was calling him. Nearly replied when he heard a voice, a male voice answer back. A sort of elation ran through him as he remembered Axel's claim from earlier that he planned to 'get laid'. A thought of Zexion from the Sunset. Could it be that Axel liked other men too? Did Dilan know? Post it in the paper? They still worked for him, did that mean they accepted it?

Axel said something else and a set of unsteady footsteps approached. Axel poked his head in. "Shiiiit, the kid's quiet for you? Aw Demyx. Nice work." He grinned. "Hey hey, here's some cash for this, c'mon and meet Marly."

'Marly', a somewhat formidable presence for a man with pink hair, towered over Demyx, shook his hand and said 'hello' in an incredibly smooth voice. Knew enough to see this was a formality and excused himself a second later.

"New guy on the paper." He heard Axel say as he closed the door. "Seems alright. Now where were we, Marluxia?"

Suddenly, Braig's voice came floating back to him. _"…was screwing around with Marluxia…"_

He turned to stare back at the closed door to Axel's house. Shock flooding him, obliterating anything else. There was absolutely no way that this could be the same 'Marluxia' whom Vexen's wife had left him for, could there? If it was, did that make Axel a potential murderer, just as everyone said?

It took him awhile to get home to Cloud that night.

* * *

"So, how did Dilan get...y'know, his job." Demyx asked Braig the next morning before work, looking around in such a fashion that if the rest of the room hadn't been so fixated on their own coffee and conversation, it would have been almost as obvious as if he'd mentioned the pseudonym aloud. He'd had an idea after last night to see if perhaps Braig would tell him the story of Axel and Marluxia, but he'd decided to feel him out first. Or at least get him drunk. The trouble was, it was difficult to tell whether or not Braig was drunk or simply chatty by nature.

"Oh! Well that's an interesting story."

"I thought you kept your nose in your own business." Demyx, daring to be shrewd but barely raising his eyes above his glass.

Braig laughed at him. "I do. But this is Destiny Islands, therefore if you don't know someone's life story within the first day of living here, you clearly stopped breathing on the way...or don't read the best column in the paper. But Dilan huh? Everyone knows that story. It's a good one. It's about a girl."

Demyx blinked. "You'll probably meet her sometime. Inventor's daughter. Everyone says she's pretty, but really not my deal."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I like 'em blonde and leggy." He winked at Demyx who blanched. "I'm talking about women, you twit. If you want to know about ass-pirating, go talk to the bossman! Anywho, Dilan's pretty hung up on Belle - that's her name. The trouble is, she's got this boyfriend. Gaston. I guess you could say it speaks to her taste in men. Gaston's sorta cut from the same cloth as Dilan physically, y'know. Now, Dilan's my buddy and all - so I know I sound biased, but I think she'd be better off with Dil any day of the week. She's an inventors daughter y'know, and really likes her adventures. Gaston? I think he wants to settle down and have rugrats. Like six or seven."

Demyx thinking about Roxas and Sora piping up before he knew what he'd said. "Kids aren't so bad...but six is a bit much." he hastened to add.

"Right. Anywho, one day, bound to happen, Dilan and Gaston get into a disagreement. And by disagreement, I mean fight. And by fight, I mean drunken brawl. Dilan used to come in here mornings with me, y'know."

"A fight over Belle, right?"

"That's right. Uh. Dilan's not a nice drunk." Demyx noted at that point, Braig's hand strayed absentmindedly to his eyepatch.

"Is that how...?"

Braig cut him off. "Well, of course, Belle found out. Gaston wasted no time villifyin' Dilan as the instigator and since then she's never spoken to him. Dilan's...never quite gotten over that, and...well Axel being the right bastard he is, offered him that job the next day."

"Hm." Demyx, hand rubbing absentmindedly over the condensation forming on the outside of his water glass, was beginning to see a clear pattern. Dilan, a man humiliated by the slanderous gossip that everyone whispered about him and his rival now wrote the gossip column. Demyx had lost his best and only friend to an accident - which he too was now expected to report on."

"Do you think...it helps to confront your pain like this?" voice slow, careful, wondering what Braig and Luxord's stories were now too.

"Bit too deep for me at this hour in the morning. C'mon. Bet Axel's slept off his hangover by now."

Demyx got up to follow Braig, disappointed that he never got to ask his question about Axel, began to wonder if it was none of his business after all. After all, there were probably a dozen guys named 'Marluxia' running around. It had been a popular trend for a few years for parents to give their child a name with an 'X' in it, and Axel and himself, as well as the guy from last night fell into the correct age range.

Upon arriving at the office, Axel waved him over to the corner, where a desk had been wedged kitty-corner into the last bit of space there was left. An ancient computer sat on top of the unpolished surface. "C'mon over here Demyx." Axel beckoned him with his hand, grinning. "Gotchya a computer."

"Thank you." Demyx spluttered, sitting down at the machine and giving a small shudder as Axel's hair brushed his arm as he bent to turn the computer on. The chill of pleasure almost instantly turned to one of fear as his boss straightened muttering just soft enough for Demyx to catch him above the hum of the machine. "If you dare mention Marly to anyone, I'll kill you. Got it memorized?"

Demyx nodded imperceptibly and Axel clapped him on the back as he moved off to go talk to Dilan._Danger!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** Headlines (3 of ?)  
**Author: Lost Experiment**  
**Rating:** PG-13/T  
**Pairings/Warnings/Spoilers:** Axel/Demyx, AU, Character Death. Some stuff unique to this chapter I won't spoil here. Het and Yaoi.  
**Summary:** When Demyx, a poor reporter and worse writer barely clinging to his job is forced to cover the story of the death of one of his only friends, he decides to start fresh in a new world. His new boss is practically a criminal, his new colleagues are strange and he's stuck covering the very thing he wanted to escape in the first place.  
**Authors' Notes: **Thanks for reading…and if you liked reading, or want to place it on your +faves, please review. Reviews are golden and make me happy. 

* * *

Chapter Three

Axel was in a fantastic mood all the rest of the week. Demyx had to actually remind himself about the death threat upon occasion, as it seemed unlikely that the perpetually sarcastic and cheerful man could have ever said something so violent. Sora even visited the office on Wednesday, mostly to tell his father he'd made the team after the Blitzball tryouts. Roxas it transpired, had been kept after school to do some lines as punishment for bashing a kid named Seifer with a struggle bat 'really hard'. Demyx thought back to Cloud and himself. Cloud hadn't gotten really spectacular grades or anything, but he'd been a member of the school's snowboarding and wrestling teams. He'd generally been pretty modest about his accomplishments, but much like Sora he'd never really managed to catch that his brother was looking less and less stellar by comparison. He felt a wave of sympathy for Roxas.

"He said it was an accident." Sora said defensively when he caught Demyx looking over at them. "Seifer's a wuss. Roxas didn't even hit him that hard and anyway, he had to stay too because he called Roxas a bad word and the teacher heard." At least Sora was trying a little. Demyx's face relaxed into a bemused 'adult' smile. Ah, saving grace.

Axel just laughed, evidently relieved it hadn't been something worse. "Don't you get any ideas. It's bad enough having one of you all violent, but at least your brother's finally taking an interest in physical activity. Maybe he'll finally join one of your extra-curriculars."

Sora playfully punched his dad's arm and went over to where Braig was running the copy machine. "Hey Braig, Miss Trepe said for me to tell you she'll see you at seven, not eight tonight. Are you dating her?"

Braig looked at Sora, evidently choosing to ignore the failure to use a formality like 'Mr.' with him. Probably didn't care. "What do you think?"

The kid thought. "Yeah. That's cool. She's pretty like Riku."

Braig burst out laughing. "You sure you ain't really Axel's kid?"

Sora stuck out his tongue in reply. "Axel is my dad."

"It's past noon. Therefore, I am too drunk to explain genetics to a rugrat. Don't they teach you anything in science class?"

"I thought you were a writer, not a scientist. Anyway we have sex-ed for that."

"There's a lot you don't know about me. How else do you think I got this?" Braig tapped his eyepatch and grinned at Sora.

"Can I see it this time?" Sora had abandoned the idea of a sexual education for now and was gazing at the covered eye with interest. Braig shook his head. "No way kid."

The boy's fingers twitched as though he longed to simply reach up and grab the patch off of Braig's face, but his hand dropped instead and he looked to Demyx. Hadn't realized he'd stopped working to watch the scene.

"But I thought you got it in a bar fight with…" Demyx spoke up, feeling as though he should say something. He wound up trailing off very abruptly, glancing at Dilan, whose face had frosted over.

It was Braig who came to the rescue. His lone eye darted from one to the other, sizing both men up. "Ah, Dilan, stop being a fuckwad." He waved the icy glare away carelessly. "Dilan hates the fact that he doesn't know how I got this." He said, his sarcastically conspirator's tone an unspoken challenge.

Demyx fell silent, half grateful to his new friend for diffusing a potentially dangerous situation, but also unbelievably curious. So there were things the indefatigable gossip didn't know. How had Axel avoided that all-knowing gaze? How had Braig? Was this the secret to uncovering Axel's indiscretions?

The afternoon progressed with Demyx pondering Braig's statement and a great deal of silence, exacerbated wen Sora had left to catch up with his brother, whose detention was now done. Dilan too had left the office at that time in ill-disguised rage. Braig whistled through his teeth, possibly just to break the tension. "Pretty like Riku, huh?"

Surprisingly, it was Luxord who looked up and laughed, shaking his head. "Not my problem." He said cryptically.

Before Demyx had time to ponder that statement and what it meant, Axel nodded over at him. "Yo. Demyx. There's a truck wreck up in the mainland you oughtta go cover. You probably can't get there by boat and we don't want you to end up in the accidents section yourself so hmm…" he picked up a pencil and scratched out a crude map on a back issue. "Walk it from there, and you'll be alright. By the way, I've got another sitting job for you on Saturday. Do as good a job as last time and I'll increase your pay."

He laughed raucously at the dumbfounded stares the rest of his staff gave him, but Demyx didn't hear them, didn't say anything as he just took the keys and left to capture someone else's misery on film.

* * *

Maybe it was this experience of snapping pictures of life, snuffed out in an explosion of charred flesh that convinced Demyx to ask his brother about Braig's suggestion to buy a boat on Saturday morning. Cloud's strange look was actually a surprise to Demyx when he asked for Riku's family address.

The odd look became clear soon in the most predictably embaressing of ways. He rang the doorbell to be greeted by an attractive woman with a kindly face and a great deal of brown, wavy hair. He was just thinking that she didn't exactly resemble the silver-haired Riku when she gave him a brilliant smile of recognition.

"You must be Demyx! It's a pleasure to finally meet you." 

He was saved further humiliation when he cottoned on that Luxord must have been Riku's father and that's why Braig had suggested him. "Likewise." He said, grasping her hand, even though Luxord had never mentioned his wife or son. In fact, he and Demyx hadn't spoken much, so maybe it wasn't all that strange.

"C'mon in." Aerith held open the kitchen door.

"I don't want to intrude." Demyx said politely. "I just stopped by to see about a boat."

Aerith shook her head. "Luxord was the same way when he first arrived here, but things just work differently when the community's small I guess. Speaking of, he is in the middle of a job, so he'll probably be another twenty minutes at best. Sit down for awhile. I insist."

Foreigner gets it wrong…again. Demyx took stock. He had to admit, he was getting tired of variations on that headline. She put some sandwiches and soup on the table. "Help yourself." This time, he did.

"Thanks. It's good." He said, honestly. He eyed over her shoulder to where a large vegetable garden was growing. "You grew most of this yourself?"

She nodded. "Yeah. The community kinda helps out each other best they can. Some of us grow food, Luxord works on boats…" she jerked her head out the window in the direction of the beach front. "The fire service is voluntary and so is the supplementary health staff. We have professionals of course, but it's good to be prepared in case of an emergency."

There was a loud pounding at the door. "'Scuse me a moment." Aerith hurried off, leaving Demyx to mull that over. Talentless? Need a Job Fast? He came back to reality with a jolt, only to catch Aerith's next words.

"So it's your boat Luxord's fixing today. Isn't that a coincidence. I've already got some company from the paper. C'mon in."

"Hey! It's Demyx!" Axel turned to Aerith. "I love this guy. He keeps the hellraiser silent for me."

"Ah, you babysit. That's nice, Demyx. Maybe you could take care of Riku sometime."

"I uh…" Demyx remembered his resolution. Maybe this was just his solution to the earlier problem of fitting in. "Yeah. Of course."

Axel clapped him on the back, and Demyx felt the familiar tingle of attraction. Axel's hand seemed to remain there a second longer than it should have, but before the thought could so much as register, the other man was accepting a glass of iced tea from Aerith and chatting about something Sora had brought home from class.

After a few moments of idle chit-chat, Aerith excused herself a second time to answer the phone. Axel's eyes followed her progress closely.

When she had disappeared, Axel turned to Demyx. "So it seems like you really took me seriously. Good idea."

Demyx had no idea how to reply. "You said you were going to kill me!" he spread his hands, watching as the taller man advanced on him, something unrecognizable gleaming in his eyes. Fear mixed with attraction stirred inside of him, sending cold chills down his spine.

"Oh but this is too much!" Axel laughed as though he'd just heard the best joke in the world. "You're attracted to me. You're dead scared but you want in my pants. That's why you haven't said anything!"

Demyx was little more than dumbfounded. Axel played a headgame he just didn't understand. He wasn't used to his emotions being all laid out there like that. Wasn't sure what to do when Axel leaned across the table and grasped his shoulder with one hand. The other hand against the table had chewed nails stained with printer ink and graphite lead. Dully he could hear the buzz of Aerith Gainsbourough's voice as she chattered animatedly with someone on the phone about her husband's availability schedule. The words registered in the numb, dumb way that things tended to linger when one was acutely aware of their surroundings.

"A little incentive…you deserve it." And then he was being pressed against the back of the chair, a hand rubbing with maddeningly unconcerned amusement against him as he whispered half-hearted derision into his parted lips. "One good turn…"

Demyx let it happen. Even for a man whose greatest sexual experience to date had been intimate encounters with his own hand and a few wet kisses from when his grandmum had been alive, Axel was clearly talented. He felt raging guilt and freedom and fear and desire all at once, wasn't sure it was possible to feel so many things all at one time.

"You won't say anything…you like this too much."

Just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Aerith came back into the room and the two men were sitting at either ends of the table. The redhead had turned his attention to gobbling his food and making Aerith's cheeks blossom with praise, so much so that perhaps she missed the pinkness spreading across Demyx's own face. Axel's eyes met his for just a moment and they issued a challenge. Demyx knew he could not meet that challenge – Braig's words came crashing back to him. He was mysterious. Dilan didn't know anything about him so he could pretend anything he wanted. It was his weapon, but right now it felt more like running away all over again.

Luxord returned then, with a promise he could get started on a new boat project in another three-weeks time and an agreement to keep it simple for the sake of Demyx's status as a beginner. It all left Demyx to wonder if it were at all possible to avoid being in the same room with Axel altogether. Given his track record at running away, he figured his chances weren't all that spectacular.

* * *

"Come on Roxas. Dad said it'd be okay if we went to the play-island today. You can play Blitzball with Wakka and Tidus and me and stuff." Demyx, on his way to his babysitting job froze in the act of pushing the bell, heading around to the back yard of Axel's house, where Sora's voice had issued from.

"I don't think so." Roxas said softly, scuffing his feet.

"Dad said it would be fun." Demyx stopped to listen and saw immediately that if Sora had wanted his brother to be interested, he had just made a grave mistake. He could picture Roxas' angry scowl.

"I'm not doing anything Axel says is fun." Roxas was sure to put emphasis on the name he used in place of 'Dad'.

"When are you going to stop hating him? It's not that I don't miss our real Dad a lot, but Axel's pretty fun."

Roxas' eyes narrowed in response. "I hate him He acts like he's such a great father, and does all that fun stuff because he figures he'll feel less guilty about what he did. He's such a fake, lying asshole." Demyx suddenly was acutely aware he was eavesdropping and decided to stop, walking straight into the backyard as though he had no idea they were there or talking about their father.

Sora sighed. "I thought you'd started changing when you didn't mess with that Demyx guy's head when he was over watching us."

Roxas shrugged in response, though he seemed a little startled to see Demyx standing there.

"So why don't you make life tough for me?" Demyx asked Roxas when Sora had left. He didn't let on that he'd overheard the earlier parts of the conversation, though he suspected Roxas knew.

"'Cause I know Axel bullies you too, I guess."

"N…not really…" Demyx's mind drifted back to the death threat, then to Aerith's kitchen. Demyx had only equated bullying with being beaten up and he hadn't really been beaten up all that often in school, as though even the bullies found him beneath their notice.

"It's okay to admit it." Roxas said offhandedly. "He's a jerk. Your brother is Lieutenant Cloud Strife, right? Why don't you get him to punch Axel in the face. Then he wouldn't bother you anymore."

Demyx blinked. "I...don't think SOLDIER works like that."

For the most part, their conversations didn't return to Axel and his many indiscretions. Roxas seemed content to play quietly on his own for the most part, and eat grilled cheese for lunch, which was a blessing to Demyx's negligible cooking skills. He made himself scarce sometime around four, about the time Axel was due to return.

Axel's call of "I'm home!" was punctuated by the slamming of a bedroom door, leaving Demyx exactly where he didn't want to be: Alone in a hall with Axel.

To be continued...


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** Headlines (4 of ?)  
**Author: Lost Experiment**  
**Rating:** PG-13/T  
**Pairings/Warnings/Spoilers:** Axel/Demyx, Gaston/Belle/Xaldin (Dilan), Luxord/Aerith AU, Mystery/Horror, Character Death. Some other pairings along the way. Het and Yaoi, Disturbing themes. Nautical Humour.  
**Summary:** When Demyx, a poor reporter and worse writer barely clinging to his job is forced to cover the story of the death of one of his only friends, he decides to start fresh in a new world. His new boss is practically a criminal, his new colleagues are strange and he's stuck covering the very thing he wanted to escape in the first place.  
**Authors' Notes: **If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I would be very wealthy. Instead, I get to be a research assistant, but certainly not one that works on the heart. Hope you enjoy reading and I love reviews and constructive critique as much as any author. Please leave some - it'd be highly appreciated!!

* * *

"Hey Roxas!" Axel called. No response issued from the upstairs bedroom door, and so Axel turned his attentions onto Demyx, already starting to sweat in anticipation of unwanted attention.

He could have hugged Sora for walking in shortly after. He was accompanied by another boy his age with tanned skin and hair that the sun was rapidly lightening from dark brown to a golden colour.

"Roxas!" Sora called out, apparently oblivious to Demyx's presence. Almost immediately, the blonde boy emerged from his room, confirming Demyx's suspicions that he had been ignoring Axel's earlier summons. Sora immediately launched into an excited description of his afternoon. "Hi! You should have come! It was fun! We played Blitzball for awhile, but Selphie got hit on the head by Wakka and then we didn't have four people to play anymore so Tidus and me found this cave." He gestured wildly towards the other boy when he said it. "It was so cool. I'll show you it tomorrow."

"Hey Roxas." Tidus said, his voice friendly. He turned to Demyx next. "Hi!"

"Oh yeah. This is Demyx from Dad's work. Dad sometimes gets him to watch us…I mean, the house when he's out." Sora quickly covered his slip in front of his friend. "Hey, Dad…can we have pizza for dinner? Because Tidus is staying."

"Cool." Roxas said, but without the bright enthusiasm that the other two boys showed. Then Demyx, realizing with a start that he could tell that Roxas did like Tidus and would be more than willing to put up with his brother's bubbly friends: _New Guy Finally Gets It Thanks to Kids. Feel Good Story of the Year._

It was a step in the right direction.

"Hey, maybe Demyx wants to stay for pizza as well," Axel said lightly. "He's our friend, right Sora, and you invited Tidus in front of him. It's polite."

The temperature in the room promptly dropped several degrees. Demyx almost immediately backing away from the potential problem, muscles tensing unbidden to run. Tidus seemed mildly confused and distinctly uncomfortable as Roxas turned an angry glare on his father.

"Don't do that to him Axel. I don't want you ruining him like everything else you touch!"

"Do you want to stay for pizza with us?" Sora to the rescue again. Demyx should refuse. He could escape. Say he's having dinner with Cloud, with Braig, that he felt sick. "Okay. That sounds nice." He voice claimed mastery over his thoughts.

Axel grinned, Demyx looked over at Roxas, trying to tell him it was alright. This seemed to have worked, as the boy's face relaxed somewhat. As dinner progressed, Demyx was sure he caught a gleam of something in Roxas' eye, but it seemed to dissolve the next chance he had to look over. He spent an hour there and got a better dinner than the leftovers Cloud usually brought back from the Officers Club. He learned a lot about playing little league Blitzball, but nothing more definitive about Axel.

* * *

"Cloud, I'm back."

Predictably, there was no reply. Two messages blinked on the answering machine and Demyx got a pencil and paper to copy them down for his brother. It came as a shock when they turned out to be for him instead.

"Hey mate, it's Luxord. Your boat's ready, so if you get this before 8:00 tonight, stop by and pick it up then. We're planning go out to the pub with Dilan straight after. It's custom to buy a round or two for someone when they get themselves their first boat. Braig's on some date of course. You can get as tanked as you like: Dilan doesn't drink so he's going to drive us both home safe."

To his greater surprise, the second message turned out to be from Dilan confirming the outing. His voice crackled over the speaker, brief and gruff: "Luxord and I are going to head out around 9:00 or so to the Palm Bar. It's behind the row of buildings where the office is."

Demyx felt a flutter in his stomach, powerful butterflies that always accompanied change or stress. But wasn't this a good change? Luxord, Braig and Dilan seemed like friends maybe, people who would protect him against whatever Axel was up to. Maybe one day he could confide in them. Feeling powerful, he scribbled a quick note to his brother and taped it to the phone, then grabbed an umbrella from the closet for good measure. It was starting to rain.

* * *

"Alright Demyx. Listen up." Aerith headed back into the kitchen from the workshop after giving them both their tea, not wishing to interfere with her husband's lesson. Riku sat by, watching the proceedings with interest. "I figured since you're new to this, you wouldn't get yourself a motor on your own, so I picked one up. Take a good look here. It's not expensive one but it's well-made. There's pricier stuff than this out there that's terrible but they like to sell it to folks who don't know any better. Anyway, you attach the swivel here, and lower this into the water when you want to use it. Lift it out when you don't or the gas will leak."

"Okay." Demyx smiled, genuine. It was good to know that the whole world didn't share a desire to swindle him out of everything he had. He focused, trying to make his expression match Riku's. The younger boy with the silver hair looked terribly smart beyond his years.

"You doin' okay mate?"

Demyx shrugged, a bit embarrassed. "'mfine. So, when I'm in the water and I want to use the boat, I lower this." He demonstrated the way Luxord had.

"Yep. Now. This here's the emergency kit…uh, blanket, storm light, rope, oars, bail, a flare…this cinder block's gonna be your anchor." He picked up a block fastened securely with a long length of rope, and hitched the other end to a sturdy o-ring bolted to the side of the craft. "You'll want to replace the ropes regularly – all of them. The mooring and the one in the emergency kit as well."

Riku suddenly snickered, breaking his picture of intelligence. His father gave him a stern look to Demyx's ever increasing surprise, and the boy mastered himself.

"We're going to take off and put the boat in the marina before heading to the bar." Luxord informed Demyx. It was raining more heavily when they got outside, but Luxord was prepared for that too. He handed over a neatly folded tarp.

"What happened…"

"Oh. Never mind Riku. I'm trying to teach him the family business, but he's more interested in where he can go with a boat than the construction of the craft itself. If you want to know what the joke is, find a nautical dictionary sometime and look up the _cuntline_"

"Kids think filthy words and stuff are hilarious." Demyx pointed out, laughing a bit under his hand himself.

"I know. I just don't want him growing up unable to respect a woman…or, I suppose the English language" He gave Demyx a look. "How come you're not hitched yet mate? You seem to be pretty on with figuring out kids. Don't you want any of your own?"

The familiar bile of panic rose unbidden in Demyx again. "Um…I…"

"Well, you don't know anyone here yet. Ask Braig to introduce you to someone nice sometime. He knows most of the women here."

Demyx chuckled faintly. He wasn't sure he wanted to give an answer to Luxord's question just yet, as he wasn't sure what he really wanted. Most of the men he knew to date, save perhaps Lexaeus had completely intimidated him. On the other hand, he'd also never been attracted to any girl that he could remember. "Maybe." He said simply, evasively. It seemed to work, Luxord changed the subject. _Polls Show that a Whopping 50 are Undecided….  
_

* * *

Dilan was waiting for them when they arrived at the bar. He was seated at the counter, reading a paperback novel with apparent disdain for its contents. The rain that was now sweeping the islands was accompanied by a heavy wind, yet none of this seemed to bother any of the patrons in the establishment.

Contrary to the bar where Demyx met Braig most mornings, this place was quieter and quite a bit cleaner.

"So!" Luxord sat down. "Demyx here just got his very first boat."

Demyx nodded and accepted the pint of beer that the bartender slid across to him, stammering thanks when Dilan passed her the munny, a rather soppy, desperate expression on his face he'd never seen before on the man and hoped never to again. It was honestly rather more frightening than his usual scowls and leers.

"That's Belle." Luxord pointed out, giving Demyx a kick under the table. He immediately tried to make his expression one of polite curiousity as Dilan turned back to face them. "Her father, Maurice is an inventor. Brilliant, but he's a little…older now, so Belle's working here for awhile to help him out."

"Nice to meet you." Belle called over, once again confirming the Island folks apparent disregard for the privacy of others. "You must be Demyx Strife. Lieutenant Cloud's brother from Twilight Town."

Unable to say anything else to that, Demyx nodded. "That's right."

The evening passed peacefully enough, Demyx halfway through his beer and under the distinct impression that Dilan was looking to get him drunk enough to loosen his tongue.

He was only halfway through his first drink when an immense clap of thunder heralded the arrival of a sopping wet, unusually pathetic looking Axel. He found their table in a moment, green eyes unnaturally huge in his thin face.

"It's Roxas! He's…run away."

Luxord was out of his seat in an instant, followed by Dilan.

Braig was waiting in Axel's car, looking far more bleary-eyed than normal, but mercifully alert and much calmer than Axel. "Little shit took the boat." He growled.

"He might not have right?" Axel said again. "I mean, you said he could have gotten scared by the storm and gone inland without tying it back up, right?!"

Demyx's insides felt like ice. All he could see was Lexaeus, laying prostrate on that stretcher, water-bloated and unnatural blue. He couldn't think of Roxas like that.

"…in your boat?"

"Huh?"

"Demyx, are you in any condition to try and look for Roxas in your boat." Luxord repeated, seriously. "Take a lifejacket if you think you can keep your head. We'll do better if we've got two people on the water and Braig's had way too much liquor already tonight to safely operate a vehicle."

Demyx found himself nodding. He tried to remember what Luxord had told him. _Undo the moor rope, put the motor in the water, then start the engine…_ That was right, wasn't it?

"Send up a flare if you find him." Braig called back to him as his already cold fingers fumbled with the tarp and the moor line on the boat.

He wondered morbidly if Roxas might have thought that dying would be worth it to escape Axel.

* * *

The water was rough going, but Luxord had been right about the engine. It kept him going reasonably straight, even though the waves threatened to knock him off course by stubbornly going the other way.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been out there. He gave a fleeting thought to the level of fuel in his engine, all the while calling Roxas' name through the rain.

"Shit." He had gotten close to the shore, and there were a few shapes barely discernible drifting in the water. With his heart in his throat, he made his way towards it. "Oh…shit, Roxas."

The boy's body floated there in the frigid water. He was wearing a life jacket and was face up, but his eyes were definitely closed. Demyx feared the worst when he jumped out of the boat and his legs hit the frigid water. He dragged the boy from the shallows with one hand and his new boat as much as he dared up the shore. They seemed to be in a small cove. Close to Roxas had been bobbing, there was a hard plastic suitcase that was unbelievably and unusually pink. Wondering if this might be Roxas' 'supplies', he fished it out of the drink

"Blanket…c'mon." he coached himself into retrieving the supplies Luxord had brought, stripping Roxas of his wet things and wrapping him in the blanket. Once that was accomplished he sent up the flare and felt on the cold neck for some sign of pulse.

"C'mon Roxas…" Demyx laid him back on the sand. He hadn't needed to do anything remotely resembling CPR since taking swimming lessons when he was in his teens. "Don't die. We were all really scared. Axel was really scared. I know Sora's going to cry."

He leaned down, blowing breath into Roxas' lungs and holding his nose closed, hoping he was doing it right. He compressed the chest the best he remembered, then tried again. Five times, and finally, Roxas coughed up water. It was milky-coloured and disgusting and splattered all over Demyx's already wet pants but he didn't care.

"De…" was all that Roxas could make out, and Demyx pulled the blanket around him, holding him close.

"Is this your suitcase?" he asked him – anything, anything to keep talking. He vaguely remembered something like that, and he didn't trust himself not to stop babbling either. "Of course it is. I'll open it, and we'll see if your clothes are dry."

"N…not…" Roxas was still too cold to get words out properly. Demyx tried to pry open the two halves of suitcase, but they were locked tight. Demyx groped around Roxas' discarded clothes and eventually deduced that the key must have fallen out. A small jagged rock lay close on the beach and he started endeavoring to hack apart the clamps. If it was that tightly closed, perhaps no water had gotten in after all.

"Damn!" and then there was a click. The suitcase sprang open and Demyx yelled, screamed and grabbed Roxas. Scrambling as far away from the pink monstrosity and its watery horrors as he could get.

"Demyx?" Roxas finally managed.

"There's a HAND. A HAND. Roxas…what were you doing with a hand in that suitcase?"

The thing, slimy and gelatinous with water and sea plants slid with a squelch out of the luggage to lay on the beach, glistening in the moonlight just within the traumatized pair's line of vision.

_To Be Continued…_


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** Headlines (5 of ?)  
**Author: Lost Experiment**  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word Count:** 2400+  
**Pairings/Warnings/Spoilers:** Axel/Demyx, AU, Other various minor pairings, language.  
**Summary:** When Demyx, a poor reporter and worse writer barely clinging to his job is forced to cover the story of the death of one of his only friends, he decides to start fresh in a new world. His new boss is practically a criminal, his new colleagues are strange and he's stuck covering the very thing he wanted to escape in the first place.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

"Demyx! Are you there? Do you have Roxas?"

A figure was racing up the beach through the haze and the rain towards them. Demyx pulled Roxas protectively close, but relaxed when he made out it was Braig. He began to sob or heave, breathing hard and not quite sure if he was crying or hyperventilating or both.

"Shit dude, it's okay. Breathe." Braig's hands gripped his shoulders.

"It's not mine…it's not MINE!" Roxas started screaming just then, writhing hoplessly in Demyx's grasp but making no real move to free himself.

"What's no…oh. Fuck." Braig blinked over at the severed hand, lying on its bed of seaweed. "Christ Demyx, get Roxas out of here. Car's back that way."

Then Axel and the police had arrived. Demyx vaguely remembered the haze of doctors checking over him and Roxas at the health unit in the police station and trying to mumble answers to the cops who had interrogated him.

* * *

Presently, Axel, Sora and Roxas were asleep. Sora was stretched across several of the uncomfortable plastic chairs with his head in Axel's lap. Axel had his arms around Roxas, holding him protectively close. For whatever reason, the blonde was tolerating this. Possibly simply because he was too tired to have protested even while he was awake.

Braig was presently being interrogated in the next room. His loud voice issued through the door every so often..

"I dunno…I mean, everyone and their mother knows Axel's a total ass-pirate and all, but he's not the kind to have fruity pink luggage. Plus the kid says it ain't his…and that thing looked like it'd been down there awhile." A pause, during which the muffled voice of the cop replied. "Fuck if I know. I just found the dude shaking and holding the kid."

Demyx must have fallen asleep for awhile after that, as the next thing he knew, he was being shaken awake by Cloud. "C'mon, Demyx. The cops say you can come home with me tonight. They'll question you in the morning."

Demyx yawned and stretched, his back protesting the hard waiting room chairs. He was too tired to argue with his brother, even if he had wanted to. He supposed that judging by the now-empty station, Axel, Roxas and Sora had already gone home themselves..

"Thanks Braig." Cloud added, inclining his head slightly.

Demyx turned around too. Presumably, Braig had been sitting with him all this time, but that wasn't what caught his attention. The older man had his eye-patch flipped up, and was scratching violently at a disgusting mess of burned and scarred skin. Demyx had no medical experience, but it didn't take a genius to realize that he'd been badly burned there. Come to think of it, the ugly scar on the man's opposite cheek looked like a burn wound too.

"Now you know why I don't show the kids.' Braig said, when he caught Demyx staring. He shrugged and flipped the patch down and stood, a little too quickly. "See ya tomorrow, 'kay Demyx. Sorry your party got cut short."

"Mmm, sorry 'bout your date." Demyx slurred in his haze of tiredness, and nobody really managed to say 'goodbye' after that. Demyx fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow and he didn't bother to even so much as pull on a pair of boxers to sleep in.

* * *

Cloud didn't say a word when he found his younger brother sleeping nude the next morning, he merely turned up the shade so that bright sunlight poured into the room.

"Get up." He announced. He sounded exactly like a SOLDIER ranking officer, but Demyx who knew him well could sense a hint of what Cloud referred to as 'emotion' in the military bark. "We're going for breakfast at the Sandbar before we head to the police station."

Demyx flushed slightly and waited until Cloud had marched himself out of the room before rolling onto his back and laying there a moment more while he allowed all the memories of the night before to come flooding back in.

"Ten minutes" Cloud hollered from downstairs.

"Coming." Demyx heaved himself out of bed with an effort and threw on the first pair of shirt and trousers within reach, running a hand through his hair which flopped into his eyes. He didn't care what he looked like.

His brother gave him a funny look and the two got into Cloud's army jeep to head to the place in question. It turned out to be the same bar that he and Braig frequented every morning. Demyx had never bothered to learn the name. What was more – his friend was there to greet them.

"Rough night, huh?" Braig said with a smirk, taking a swig of his beer. Sometimes Demyx wondered if the man had a superhuman liver. He was almost constantly drinking whenever Demyx saw him, but he never seemed to be falling over himself like some of the men at the Christmas parties Xemnas had held.

"You could say that." Demyx leaned on his hand with a sigh and accepted the menu and cup of coffee that the waitress brought him. He noticed vaguely that she didn't offer coffee to either of the other two men – already the small community of Destiny Islands was beginning to penetrate his existence.

"Eh, just tell 'em what you know." Braig shrugged, slamming his empty glass on the table and signaling the waitress for another, something else that, since the very first time he'd met the man, he'd never seen him do – at least not in the mornings. "It ain't like you've got shit to hide."

Demyx poked listlessly at the plate of slightly watery eggs, bacon, fish and potatoes he was served, thinking about Axel, Marluxia and Axel's hands wandering all over him in Aerith's kitchen. He wondered how much he had to hide. Unfortunately, he'd never been all that good at hiding in the first place: _Man is Open Book  
_

* * *

The chief of police, an unattractive elderly man named Yen Sid, was there to greet Demyx when Cloud dropped him off at the station.

"Right this way." He pointed towards the same room that Braig had occupied the night before. A younger officer was already seated at the table, carrying a form and a pad of paper. He got up to introduce himself to Demyx and waved him towards a plastic chair across from him "I'm Inspector Leon. Please have a seat."

Taking the proffered seat, Demyx rested his arms stiffly on the table to calm the fact that he was shaking.

"There's nothing to be concerned about, Mr. Strife." Leon glanced at him. "The forensics tests we've already done on your discovery are more than enough to determine that you were not involved in any form of murder. All we need is for you to give an account of what happened last night. Please be as detailed as you can."

Demyx frowned, face scrunching into thought. "I was helping Axel search for Roxas. They wanted me to search in my boat, as I'd had the least to drink. I'm not even sure where I ended up – some sort of cove."

"You were all the way around to the north side.' Leon interjected. "You were on the private property of a gentleman named Marluxia, however given the circumstances he's not planning to press trespassing charges."

"Oh." Demyx said, his eyes flickering open in surprise. Leon gave him an odd look, and he hastened to explain. "We've met in passing."

This seemed to mollify the inspector. "Let's return to the subject of the night in question. When you found Roxas, what did you do?"

"I found him floating on his back near his overturned boat. There was a suitcase floating near him, and I picked it up because I thought it might have his clothes and things in it. He was unconscious so when I was up on the beach, I performed CPR and put him in the driest blanket I had with me."

"What about the suitcase? How did you get it open?"

"There wasn't a key, I thought it had fallen out of Roxas' pockets or something. I used a rock."

"Why did you decide to open it?"

"I thought maybe some of the clothes that were in it would be dry."

"Yet you knew it wasn't Roxas?"

"He was unconscious and then cold. He didn't tell me anything. He just started screaming when I opened it and that hand fell out!" Demyx blurted, agitated. Hadn't the cop just said they weren't planning on pressing charges?

"That's enough excitement, Leon." Yen Sid interjected. "Mr. Strife, you are free to leave. You will have to forgive us – we have no leads and Leon has become understandably frustrated. However, please take my card. If you find you can remember anything else about the night in question, please let us know."

Demyx nodded numbly and stood, shaking the Chief and the Inspector's hands, then stumbling back into the waiting room. Cloud stood as he entered.

"Ready to go home kiddo?"

"No, I think I'm going to go down and practice in my boat for awhile."

Cloud raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Demyx thought he knew what it was about; Demyx was infamous for running away from traumatizing situations and always had been. Last night's adventure would normally have been more than enough to put him off ever setting foot on a water faring vessel ever again. His older brother seemed rather impressed. "I'll leave out some hotdogs or chicken or something for you. General Sephiroth's got us doing drills until twenty-three hundred…or until we get it right." He shook his head ruefully. "I don't think the man has a definition for 'doing it right', so if you never see me again, you'll know why."

The car pulled out next to the pier and Demyx stepped out onto dock nine to undo the mooring on his already weather-worn boat. He cast off, if not expertly, then competently into the water and struck out for the north side of the island. _Man does something righton the first try. Armegeddon Announced.  
_

* * *

He dragged the boat up on the shore, a short way away from where there was still police tape and markers littering the area where he and Roxas had sat during the storm. Now that there was no rain to obscure the vision, Demyx could make out a rather large and impressive greenhouse building through the trees. He moved towards it, only to be intercepted at the door.

"Can I help you?" This was definitely the same Marluxia Demyx had een introduced to at Axel's house that first night. This fact was confirmed when the man pulled his eyebrows together in curiosity. "Haven't we met?"

"Yes, I was over at Axel's…"

"Ah. Axel's…babysitter." Marluxia cut him off and pushed open the door to his greenhouse, Demyx doggedly following him. "How's he doing?"

Demyx started. "Oh. You read about that."

"Most people read the paper. Particularly _Heartless_"

"Right."

In the dim light of the greenhouse, Marluxia cut an impressive figure, but he made no move to chase Demyx from his presence. "So what exactly are you doing back on my property?"

"I wanted to talk to you." Marluxia's eyes narrowed at him, and Demyx thought fast. "I found out that we were on your property last night and they said you were a biologist." This wasn't immediately true, but Demyx deemed it wise not to mention that Braig had volunteered the information about Marluxia's profession. "I wanted to…do a horticultural special for the paper."

"A horticultural special, you say?" The taller man looked mildly interested, much to the blonde's relief.

"Yes. I mean, I was out here…and I…I was starting to wonder you know, if you get all these violent storms, how does anything grow at all?" He was babbling and he knew it, but Marluxia just sat down on a work bench and pulled off his gloves.

"Most plants are quite resilient and their roots run deep. That's not to say the wind can't….' he paused. "I thought you were running a story. Don't columnists usually take notes?"

Demyx flushed and pulled out a pen and paper. As frightening as he found the man before him, he could only wonder what Axel was going to say when THIS story appeared on his desk Monday morning. He hoped the headline wasn't going to include the word "Homicide".

* * *

Tying his boat back up at the pier, Demyx nearly fell into the water when a shout echoed down towards him.

"Dude!"

"Hi Braig." Demyx waved over his shoulder once he'd regained his balance. Satisfied that the knots were in place, he turned around to greet his friend. "How's it going."

"Same ol'. You seem better from this morning. What were you up to?"

Subconsciously, Demyx shoved his papers from the interview down into the bag he'd been carrying them in. "Just practicing."

"What'd I say about you and a boat. You look good."

"Can I talk to you?" Demyx surprised himself. _Wuss Makes Executive Decision Twice in One Day: Critics Surprised_.

"Sure kid, what's up?" Braig pointed the way towards the pier, where they could sit on the dock.

"Why does…Marluxia live all the way over on the other side of the Island?" Demyx asked. "I mean, he seems to be all alone out there."

Braig, stopped abruptly, put his arm around Demyx's shoulders and began to guide him roughly back up the path towards the bar. "I think we need a different conversation environment." He said shortly, a stiff and angry note in his voice that Demyx had never before heard from him. It was strange, ever since the incident with Roxas, everyone's secrets seemed to be coming out.

"Alright." Demyx offered. "We'll get a coffee. I mean, I'll get coffee and you'll get Destiny Islands dark ale, right."

Braig seemed to relax a little and even laughed. "I see you've gone native." This mood lasted only until they had their drinks in hand. Braig didn't even bother to take a sip, but rather he gripped the glass as though he wanted to shatter it. An ugly scowl twisted his lips and stretched the scar on his cheek gruesomely. "Marluxia lives on the other side of the island because he knows damn well I'd beat the shit out of him if he ever came back."

Demyx's eyes went wide in surprise. Was Braig really that loyal to Axel?

"Oh no, this ain't got shit to do with Axel." The older man added, as if reading Demyx's mind. "I told you earlier that I knew Even, right? Well Even was kinda an ass, but he was a friend, and Marluxia and that bitch fucked him right over. I'd kill 'im, Dilan would, Luxord would too if it came to it. I'm expecting that the boss would too, but you can never tell with the boss."

"I guess you're sorry to see him gone then." Demyx peeled his eyes away from Braig's scar to focus on his eye.

"Well, yeah. He could be a douche, but he didn't deserve that, like I say."

Demyx fell silent then, which he masked with a few sips of coffee. It seemed like everything came back to this fire incident with Axel and Even. There was, he decided one more important thing to take care of. Axel left the paper office open, and all the news he wanted was in there. It was just a matter of finding the correct headlines.

_To Be Continued…_


End file.
